Young Writers Night At the Old Stone House

The Old Stone House will be hosting it's annual 'Young Writers Night' as part of their Brooklyn Reading Works a monthly thematic reading series. The event will be featuring fiction, poetry and song by New York City teenagers. Here is more information:

Come one and all to this celebration of fiction, poetry and song by teenage writers curated by high school senior Hannah Frishberg (. The event will be introduced by Brooklyn Poet Laureate Tina Chang. An editor from One Teen Story will be on hand to distribute FREE copies of the first issue of One Teen Story.  This is a Brooklyn Book Festival Bookend Event.  

Young Writers Night

Thusrday, September 20th

Location: The Old Stone House

336 3rd Street (between 4th and 5th Avenues)

Time: 7:00 pm

Price: Free (donations welcome)

For info: 718-288-4290

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Dreaming Big: Community Envisions A True " Public Place" In Carroll Gardens

Public Place in Carroll Gardens

A view of Public Place from 4th Place in the  1930's

What is your vision for Public Place, the six acre brownfield site which runs along the Gowanus Canal and Smith Street in Carroll Gardens? That was the question posed to participants of a Community Mural Making Workshop with Artist Triada Samaras, and Carroll Gardens CORD/Coalition for Respectful Development on Sunday Afternoon.
The free workshop event was part of the current Brooklyn Utopias: Park Space, Play Space Exhibition at the Old Stone House.

Though our local elected Representatives envision a 774-unit, mixed-income, mixed-use residential development for Public Place after remediation, those in attendance yesterday envisioned a true public space
Fourteen-year-old Aather proudly showed of her brightly colored vision yesterday.
"I would like to see many flowers, a place for people to walk, a place for people to garden."

Rose and Charlotte held up their idea of what should be built on Public Place. "It's like a pool party. We made a huge community lake. It's where a lot of people are swimming together. It's free. People come around the world to see it. And it's good for the earth, instead of putting chlorine in it . But you want to war a bathing suit because its open to everyone. And frogs and toads come in."

Others dreamed of a library, a giant water fountain and green spaces. And lots of flowers and blue sky.

Perhaps they could teach City Planning a thing or two?

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What's Your Vision For 'Public Place' In Carroll Gardens?: Public Voice, Public Dream Mural Workshop At The Old Stone House

Our local elected Representatives envision a 774-unit,  mixed-income, mixed-use residential development for Public Place, the six acre brownfield site which runs along the Gowanus Canal and Smith Street.
But what do we, as the community want? What would our ideal Public Place look like?  Artist and Carroll Gardener Triada Samaras wants to incorporate our own vision into a Community Mural.
Read on:

Public Voice, Public Dream Community Mural Workshop

April 28, 2012

5 – 7:30 PM

Old Stone House

336 Third Street between 4th and 5th Ave

on the Second Floor Gallery

Come One, Come ALL!
Come and design your vision for Public Place with your family and neighbors at the Community Mural Making Workshop with Artist Triada Samaras, and Carroll Gardens CORD/Coalition for Respectful Development.
Public Place is a 6-acre vacant lot along the Gowanus Canal and Smith and Fifth Streets in Carroll Gardens. Your input and ideas may be considered for future development on the site.
This free workshop event is part of the current Brooklyn Utopias: Park Space, Play Space Exhibition at the Old Stone House and newly renovated Washington Park.
Afterwards, you can join in other fun activities such as Circle Rules football and an Interactive Performance Art event.
More information here
To reserve your spot/s in advance, please email Triada at triadasamaras@gmail.com
See you there!

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Imagining An Ideal City: Brooklyn Utopias Show At The Old Stone House

What would your ideal Brooklyn look like? How would you re-imagine our public spaces? That is the question behind a show curated by Katherine Gressel entitled Brooklyn Utopias: Park Apace, Play Space, which use opened at the The Old Stone House. Local artists responded to the challenge with imaginative, whimsical ideas that certainly would make this borough a more green, more friendly and certainly a more livable place.

“Brooklyn Utopias: Park Space, Play Space” Exhibition

From April 5 to June 24, 2012 

At The Old Stone House

336 Third St. between Fourth and Fifth Avenues, Park Slope 

(718) 768-3195

Brooklyn Utopias is an ongoing exhibit and event series, founded in 2009, in which artists, youth, activists, architects, designers and urban theorists consider differing visions of an ideal city through the “concrete” example of Brooklyn.Brooklyn Utopias: Park Space, Play Space at the Old Stone House & Washington Park (OSH) now brings together 19 artists and arts groups to address the ideal design, planning and use of public parks. Parks, playgrounds, and other public gathering spaces were historically designed as solutions to a range of urban problems from eliminating neighborhood blight to promoting health and wellness. Brooklyn, and New York City as a whole, are home to some of the grandest endeavors in urban landscaping–from Olmsted and Vaux’s Central Park and Prospect Park, to Robert Moses’ numerous playgrounds and pools, to the new Brooklyn Bridge Park—as well as grassroots neighborhood efforts. Artists in Brooklyn Utopias: Park Space, Play Space were invited to respond to existing notions of “utopian” park design and use, and/or envision their own. The exhibit corresponds with opening ceremonies for the newly renovated Washington Park/J.J. Byrne Playground surrounding OSH. This provides a perfect opportunity to reflect on the future of our parks.

Exhibiting Artists: Stephanie Beck, Lynn Cazabon, Center for Urban Pedagogy, Tamara Gayer, Christine Gedeon, Groundswell Community Mural Project, Rebecca Hackemann, Husk, Bettina Johae, Karen Kaapcke, Jess Levey,Cheryl Molnar, Will Pappenheimer, Marina Zamalin

With temporary workshops and events led by: Tracy Candido, Center for Urban Pedagogy, Circle Rules Federation, Gigantic Mechanic, Groundswell Community Mural Project, Bettina Johae, Will Pappenheimer, Triada Samaras, Kat Schneck

As part of the show, Interdisciplinary Artist and Coalition for Respectful Development Co-Founder Triada Samaras, will present a mural making/ artist activist workshop entitled Public Voice. Public Dream. Public Place: A Collaborative Mural Making Workshop to brainstorm creative solutions for Public Place." The workshop will be held on April 28th, 2012, from 5 to 7 PM

What is your vision for Public Place? In this creative artist/activist workshop, with interdisciplinary artist/activist, Triada Samaras, and CORD, we will brainstorm this question and the possible future uses of “Public Place” for our community. The area once known as Citizens Gas Works, a manufactured gas site, and now commonly called, Public Place, is a highly contaminated plot of land along the equally contaminated Gowanus Canal, bordered by Smith, 5th, and 9th Streets in Carroll Gardens. Designated as a “public recreation space” in 1975, Public Place can still inspire us to dream and to create a better future for our local neighborhoods, including our very own public park and recreational areas for our use and enjoyment in the Carroll Gardens/Gowanus area. We will depict our collective dreams using collaborative mural making.

For a complete schedule of show events, click here

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Re-Thinking Italian America At 'Brooklyn Reading Works'

Brooklyn Reading Works at the The Old Stone House kicks off its 6th season this Thursday, September 15th with "Re-Thinking Italian America".

RE-THINKING ITALIAN AMERICA AT BROOKLYN READING WORKS

Author Joanna Clapps Herman brings together a group of Italian American scholars and authors who examine the details of history as it was created, lived and spoken, but until very recently hidden from view of the larger academic and literary world in America.

As an American ethnic tribe, Italian-Americans came later than some other ethnic groups to studying and writing about the details of custom, culture, folkways and history of their people.

In the last 25 years however the flood gates have opened and there is now a rich body of written material examining all aspects of cultural history and daily ways of life. Each of the authors at this reading brings to light a particular aspect here-to-fore not examined piece of the Italian American way of life: history, language, vernacular culture and archaic customs preserved.

With:

*Joseph Sciorra is the Associate Director for Academic and Cultural Programs at the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, Queens College (City University of New York). As a folklorist, he has published on religious practices, cultural landscapes, and popular music.

*Nancy C. Carnevale is Associate Professor of History at Montclair State University and author of A New Language, A New World: Italian Immigrants in the United States, 1890-1945 (University of Illinois Press, 2009), winner of a 2010 American Book Award.

*Jennifer Guglielmo specializes in the history of immigration, race, women, and labor in the United States, and is an Associate Professor of History at Smith College. Her recent book Living the Revolution: Italian Women's Resistance and Radicalism in New York City, 1880-1945 (UNC Press, 2010) documents Italian immigrant women's commitment to revolutionary and transnational social movements, and explores how this activism diminished as they became white working-class Americans.

*Joanna Clapps Herman has published poetry, fiction, memoirs and essays. Her latest publication is her memoir, The Anarchist Bastard: Growing Up Italian In America (SUNY Albany Press, March 2011) She is co-editor of Wild Dreams: The Best of Italian Americana (Fordham University Press, 2008), as well as co-editor of Our Roots Are Deep With Passion (Other Press, 2007).

September, 15, 2011 at 8PM

The Old Stone House in Park Slope on 3rd Street bwn. 5th and 4th Avenues.

Note: due to construction in park enter from west side of the house.

$5 suggested donation includes wine and refreshments. Books for sale.

To check out Brooklyn Reading Work's full season schedule, click here.

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